IRS Touts Improved Customer Service in 2023 Tax Season

The Internal Revenue Service said it delivered “significantly improvedcustomerservice“ during the 2023 tax filing season and cited funds made available to it from the Inflation Reduction Act as the key reason for it.

According to statistics released April 17, 2023, by the agency, the IRS achieved 87 percent level of service, two percentage points above the 85 percent target set by Department of the Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and well above the 15 percent recorded in 2022.

Compared to 2022, the agency answered 2 million more calls and cut average wait times from 27 minutes to four minutes. It also served 100,000 more taxpayers in person and digitized 80 times more tax returns through the adoption of new scanning technology. The IRS also reports that 92 percent of taxpayer assistance centers (335) were open by early April this year.

The IRS also made it possible to respond to nine notices online and plan to allow for 72 more notices to come with an online response form.

By Gregory Twachtman, Washington News Editor